Music Downloads Could Disappear by 3020

[norderney]

Interesting article.

http://www.whathifi.com/news/music-d...ource=20160713


Nielsen, an American global information and measurement company, has reported that download sales in the US have fallen by 42 per cent and with the rate they’re falling, could be a thing of the past by 2020.

Nielsen’s figures are for single-track download sales and confirm that purchases of songs have fallen 24 per cent, or 127.3 million, in the first half of 2016 (year-on-year).

Figures also show how much track downloads have plummeted since their peak in 2012. US download sales in the first half of 2016 were 404.3 million, compared to the 2012 peak of 698 million sales.


Read more at http://www.whathifi.com/news/music-d...qFhwvJQMPbF.99

[d6jg]

I suspect this is due to streaming services such as Spotify and not a resurgence in CD sales.

[d6jg]

If I am still alive in 3020 I doubt I will care anyway

[Mnyb]

If I am still alive in 3020 I doubt I will care anyway

If any of us are alive we be heavily augmented by nanotech and software I will have everything downloads already and can replay songs I heard .

( unless you opted for the free nanotech augmentation and had >1000 years of adds in your head and now want to kill you're self but you can't because your immortal and its agianst the contract .. )

[Pascal Hibon]

If any of us are alive we be heavily augmented by nanotech and software I will have everything downloads already and can replay songs I heard .

( unless you opted for the free nanotech augmentation and had >1000 years of adds in your head and now want to kill you're self but you can't because your immortal and its agianst the contract .. )

To much telly ?

All kiding aside, history has shown us that we need to be very careful with such "announcements". Some people told us that vinyl would be dead soon after the CD was born. Same goes for the cassette... If anything, CD's might be the thing of that future again

[Mnyb]

To much telly ?

All kiding aside, history has shown us that we need to be very careful with such "announcements". Some people told us that vinyl would be dead soon after the CD was born. Same goes for the cassette... If anything, CD's might be the thing of that future again

To much dystopian sci-fi .

CD has it drawbacks as you have to order the stuff and wait (just like any other physical media) .

The rub with all the dowloads you have is the naggin thing about a good backup scheme , never found a fit and forget type ogf solution to that , you old CD's are all there (until there is no CD drives anymore :/ )

And the streaming ,well your fav service could be gone tomorrow and so all your !"saved" palylist and albums , and you don't really get what you want either sanitised radio versions or not at all .
Some artist wont be on these services and there is always the the constant risk of censorship .

And the idea of having a really private music collection not accounted for by big data

[Wombat]

I more or less stopped buying album downloads. With older releases you never know what version you exactly get. The used CD market is gigantic here meanwhile and cheap. I own the media and not some strange merciful allowance to listen. I completely try to ignore everything sold online that is UMG related due to their watermark strategy.
The most recent albums come handy on streaming and if i really like it i buy it one day and maybe even the HiBitrate version of it.
Edit: From small labels i buy downloads directly even online or when bandcamp offers the CD only as limited expensive version. The cd and delivery takes long and is often expensive.

[RonM]

If *all* recorded music becomes available from streaming services at reasonable prices and at high bitrates (e.g. CD quality), there is no reason why one would need to buy downloaded material. I'm sure there will be ways of capturing the stream or grabbing it upstream at faster than play time, and who will object if you can stream it anytime anyway? And that's only if you want a digital copy, which may not be the case for very many.

This vision is predicated on a couple of things:

• Pretty much everyone has access to high-enough speed internet
• Everyone has access to data maximums that allow a great deal of streaming data
• Ways of fairly compensating artists are found (not currently the case, and if no one is getting paid fairly they won't be performing)

I don't think these are intractable problems, although I don't qualify on the first bullet at this point even though I live just 10 miles outside of Toronto on a country road.

Ron

[d6jg]

I have had some further thoughts about this.

First. I still buy CDs for the same reasons as given and in the main secondhand.

Second. The current streaming services market is dominated by Spotify due I think to their longevity and perhaps pricing policy BUT I woul still like a CD quality alternative that doesn't cost an arm and a leg,

BUT the big problem IMHO with streaming services is choice. Not too little but too much of it. Having your own library is I feel the best start point for finding new music. Michael's Smart Mix is sorely missed in this regard. If I didn't have any library I really don't know quite how I would manage.

[Arniceous]

I have had some further thoughts about this.

First. I still buy CDs for the same reasons as given and in the main secondhand.

Second. The current streaming services market is dominated by Spotify due I think to their longevity and perhaps pricing policy BUT I woul still like a CD quality alternative that doesn't cost an arm and a leg,

BUT the big problem IMHO with streaming services is choice. Not too little but too much of it. Having your own library is I feel the best start point for finding new music. Michael's Smart Mix is sorely missed in this regard. If I didn't have any library I really don't know quite how I would manage.

no doubt Library is key and spotify cant even get close to my library lmao what a joke these streaming services are but hell I've been working on my library for 20 yrs now and my thoughts on CD & CD+G they aren't going anywhere however better materials used to make them improving length of lifespan on media would be fantastic.